Agenda

  1. What is mediation?
  2. Mediation embedded in the curricula
  3. Creating a mediation task
  4. Conclusion

1 What is mediation?

1.1 Mediation in Real Life

1.2 Mediation scheme

1.3 Defining mediation

„In mediation, the user/learner acts as a social agent who creates bridges and helps to construct or convey meaning (≠ translation!), sometimes within the same language, sometimes from one language to another (cross-linguistic mediation). The focus is on the role of language in processes like creating the space and conditions for communicating and/or learning, collaborating to construct new meaning, encouraging others to construct or understand new meaning, and passing on new information in an appropriate form. The context can be social, pedagogic, cultural, linguistic or professional.“ (Council of Europe 2018: 103)

1.4 Pragmatic and linguistic consequences

The focus in on the needs of the interlocutor. Mediation is not a translation task.

Addressee- and situation-appropriate communication

  • Prioritize essential information.
  • Exclude irrelevant details.
  • Incorporate necessary intercultural context.
  • Paraphrasing and summarizing

2 Mediation embedded in the curricula

2.1 Relevant Curricula

  • Common European Framework Reference for Languages (CEFR) ✓
  • Bildungsstandards (Nation-wide curriculum)
  • Kernlehrplan (North-Rhine Westphalia)

2.2 Embedding in German Curricula

Bildungsstandards (2023)
(Nation-wide curriculum)
Kernlehrplan (2019)
(State-wide curriculum)

2.3 Mediation in North Rhine-Westphalia

  • In recent years mediation tasks have been part of every written final exam (Abitur) in English, Spanish and French
  • Challenges for students and teachers:
    • High profile of requirements
      • Summarizing is a cognitively higher performance than translation
      • Precision in language < compensation strategies1
      • Students need a higher level of cultural appropriateness
    • Students are less tied to the text, but closer to the context of the mediation process
    • Complex evaluation due to weak correction criteria

3 Creating a mediation task

3.1 Task design

Contextual Embedding and addressee Your Mexican exchange student Emiliano is supposed to give a presentation about Germans in Mexico at his school after his return to Oaxaca. He asks for your help. You find Victor’s report on the Internet and think that his experiences might be interesting for Emiliano’s presentation.
Target text type You write an e-mail to Emiliano in which you briefly describe what Victor says about the country and the people in Mexico. In doing so, you will address the aspects mentioned below. Consider the type of text (e-mail) and to whom it is addressed, because there are also two points for this.
Aspects for structuring the content Address the following topics in your text: - Mentality (2 aspects) - Mexican food (1 aspect) - Family and customs (3 aspects) - Leisure time of the Mexican youth (4 aspects) - Note: Text type (e-mail) and addressee (2 points)

3.2 Further possible contexts

  • as an intern in a company (e.g. newspaper, publishing house, summer camp, etc.) abroad, write a text based on certain information from a German text source.
  • provide a friend in Spain, at his/her request, with information from a text that he/she needs for a presentation or for personal interest in his/her home country.
  • as an exchange student at a school abroad, write a text for the editors of the local school newspaper based on specific information from a German text source

3.3 Example | First year

Arriagada Espinoza et al. 2017. ¡Vamos! ¡Adelante! 1. Klett: Stuttgart

In Spanish. Alba saw an ad in the local newspaper “Barrio Chamberí”. But she doesn‘t understand because it is written in German. You are Florian and explain to Alba what the ad says.

3.4 Example | Fourth year

Arriagada Espinoza et al. 2014. ¡Vamos! ¡Adelante! 4. Klett: Stuttgart

In a blog you found this anecdote. Your friend Luis, who is spending a few days in your house, wants to know what it says. Explain it to him in Spanish. There are words you have to explain, like Flaschenpfand or gelber Sack.

4 Conclusion

  • Mediation is a core discourse competence in German foreign language education.
  • All curricula emphasize the importance of mediation
  • Mediation tasks are inspired by and aimed at the real use of the target language
  • It provides a context to use vocabulary, grammar, receptive and productive competences and intercultural competence
  • It‘s fun!

Bibliography

Arriagada Espinoza, Melanie et al. 2014. ¡Vamos! ¡Adelante! 1 [Schülerbuch], Stuttgart, Klett.

Arriagada Espinoza, Melanie et al. 2017. ¡Vamos! ¡Adelante! 4 [Schülerbuch], Stuttgart Leipzig, Klett.

Europarat, Kulturministerkonferenz, Goethe-Institut, und Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch, Hrsg. 2020. Gemeinsamer Europäischer Referenzrahmen Für Sprachen: Lehren, Lernen, Beurteilen: Begleitband. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen.

Europarat, Kulturministerkonferenz, Goethe-Institut, Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch, und Schweizerische Konferenz der Kantonalen Erziehungsdirektoren, Hrsg. 2001. Gemeinsamer europäischer Referenzrahmen für Sprachen: lernen, lehren, beurteilen. Stuttgart: Klett Sprachen.

Fäcke, Christiane 2011. Fachdidaktik Spanisch: eine Einführung, Tübingen, Narr.

Kultusministerkonferenz 2004. Bildungsstandards für die erste Fremdsprache (Englisch/Französisch) für den Mittleren Schulabschluss. Beschluss vom 4.12.2003, Darm, Wolters Kluwer.

Kräling, Katharina et al. 2013. Eine Lernaufgabe zur mündlichen Sprachmittlung. Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Spanisch, 43, 34-41.

Gruber, Alice & Hopwood, Oliver 2022. Foreign language education policies at secondary school level in England and Germany: an international comparison. The Language Learning Journal, 50, 249-261.

Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (MSB NRW) 2019. Kernlehrplan für die Sekundarstufe I Gymnasium Spanisch, Düsseldorf.

Reimann, Daniel 2019. Mediation in den neuen Skalen und Deskriptoren des CEFR Companion Volume. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung, 30, 163-180.

Kultusministerkonferenz 2012. Bildungsstandards für die fortgeführte Fremdsprache (Englisch/Französisch) für die Allgemeine Hochschulreife. Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 18.10.2012, Bonn / Berlin, Wolters Kluwer.

Eckeberg, Martin et al. 2017. Sprachmittlung im Spanischunterricht: Materialien für Jahrgang 10 an Gymnasien und die Studienstufe, Hamburg. Bär, Marcus 2016. Kompetenzen beim Lehren und Lernen des Spanischen. Spanisch-Didaktik: Praxishandbuch für die Sekundarstufe I und II. 1. Auflage ed. Berlin: Cornelsen.